Proscuitto Hang & Taste

These were hung on 3 January.

I targeted a loss of 35% for both of them but the smaller piece didn’t take as long to get as the larger one as expected. I need to monitor these a bit closer next time, I overshot the small one a bit.There weights for the two pieces were: Large Piece:

• 3 Jan weight 548g

• 8 Jan weight 436g (20.4 % loss)

• 13 Jan weight 367g (33.0 % loss) Small Piece

• 3 Jan weight, 259g

• 8 Jan weight 184 (30.0 % loss)

• 13 Jan weight 152 (41.3 % loss) After weighing, they looked like this and smelled dark with the hint of juniper.

I sliced the large one first and tried out my new meat slicer on it.

It was a very interesting taste. I didn’t think it was as strong and lamb-like (or gamey) as I expected. Soft, moist and really good. What threw this one over the edge was to throw it in a pan and crisp it up a bit, then it was like a lamb in the face! It was really great, can’t wait to have a salad with some crisped lamb proscuitto on it. I cut up the rest and packaged it. I kept end scraps for stock. I think next time I’ll try to get a thicker piece of meat to start with and not do any juniper berries, they kind of overpower the aromatics.

All in all, I found the making of Proscuitto to be very easy and would like to try out some more meats. I’ve got an eye out for a leg of goat…